This week started on an interesting note for Startup CEOs that had caused ex-employees and even current employees heartaches and the #Horriblebosses trended for quite a while. The main offender cited was Ebun Okubanjo, the CEO of Bento Africa, a payroll startup with operations in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Rwanda
The Beginning….
It all started when a Techcabal report published a report revealing the distressing experiences of ex-employees of payroll startup Bento Africa at the hands of CEO Ebun Okubanjo. The report talked about his abusive behaviour and his disdain for alternative opinions to his rule.
His first response was to discredit the report saying that it was done in retaliation for firing ex-employees who were now writers at the media company
In an apparent turnaround, Ebun has now tendered an unreserved apology in a medium post…From Ebun. With Love.
In his own words,
“In the process of building Bento, we got careless about the impact of work on people. As the leader, I am principally the most guilty and solely to blame. Every year on Jan 1st, I send the team a link to the Tai Solarin essay “May your road be rough” and I have led with careless abandon, believing that the big fish is not caught in shallow waters and that we needed to wade far offshore. We were stuck on the gears of Grow and Move. We forgot about the other gears Care and Nurture.”
“To everyone who has been on the receiving end of my outburst, either written or verbally — I am sorry. I have some work to do here and there is a lot of room for growth. It will be a lie if I say this is a switch I can make overnight, I would need to learn how to balance passion with empathy. “
Ebun said he will be stepping away from all people decisions in the company and the co-founder, Chidozie Okonkwo, will take over along with a new head of People. He also said the country leads will also be instrumental in helping shape a more humane people policy.
He went on to apologise to the ex-employees he hurt, the users and also investors.
“To everyone who I have ever made to feel less than, who have felt that fire that burn so hot when we are in the thick of it, I am so sorry for the emotional and mental stress I caused you. Please reach out to me and let me know how I can personally fix it — my numbers are the same.”
“To our users, you have trusted us with an important part of your operations — how you pay your people. We are sorry to those of you that were named and the many that were not, you deserve better, please hold us to the same high human standard that you hold our product to. We are sorry about the distraction.”
“To our investors — I am sorry, you expected better than this and I can only ask that you watch how things go going forward.”
“To our institutional partners, banks, insurance, lending and investment partners we are sorry for the distraction.”
“Finally to the team. You are an inspiration. There will be an independent investigation that will be led by the board and outside counsel. For obvious reasons I will not be a part of that. All of these will help us build a better company together.”
Memo from the Board of Directors of Bento Africa
Bento Africa’s Board of Directors also put out a memo signed by Obinna Ukachukwu, Manpreet Mann and Adedayo Amzat stating their opinion about the episode and the recommendations put in place to address the situation.
“As he is mandated to, Ebun informed the Board of Directors of Bento Africa last Thursday that he had been asked to comment on an article about the workplace culture at Bento and that he expected that something of material impact will soon be published. As professional Investors and Operators, we were aghast at the defensive and escalatory first tweets of Ebun on the matter, which we quickly moved against. Our responsibility and charter is to the Company, not the founders we invest in.”
“When we discovered the content of what was going to come out, we moved to do the following:
- Ensure that the current team is safe and free to speak freely. We voided any NDA’s that may have been in place and instructed Management to let the Team know they were free to speak to any journalist that contacted them.
- We began an active investigation into the current workplace culture at Bento and we broadened the scope when the article was released. We have also retained an external counsel.
- We instructed that Ebun take some time off and removed him from all people related decisions for now. Chidozie will now lead on this along with the country managers and functional heads.
- We are reviewing the HR and People practices and guidelines at Bento and will work with HR consultants and the company’s in house team to make sure that it is reflective of human values that drive sustainable performance.”
“We are aware of the wider impact the conversation has sparked and we will lean into it, not just at Bento but across our personal portfolios – there is no place in the world for a workplace that isn’t healthy; it is unkind and does not build good companies. Due to the ongoing investigation which is being carried out by the external counsel, we will not be able to comment on individual issues raised for now. We however expect it to be quick and we will share our observations once concluded.”
“There is no place in the world for tyranny and we will ensure Bento becomes the leading voice for the transformation of every workspace into psychologically safe spaces that allow all employees thrive.”
It is hoped that Ebun would take this valuable time off to rethink and re-evaluate his working ethics and this should be a lesson to all other founders that may be in the same situation
Founded in Nigeria in 2019 by Ebun Okubanjo and Chidozie Okonkwo , Bento Africa addresses many of the challenges African businesses face by automating salary payments, tax, pensions, and other statutory remittances. Through its cloud-based platform, Bento empowers African businesses and gives them peace of mind by streamlining many of their processes with a single click. For employees, the platform offers access to third-party services such as credit solutions – which include the ability to pay school fees and rent monthly rather than yearly – unemployment insurance, savings, investments, and much more, all at no cost to employers.
